3 Best Restaurants in Asheville, North Carolina

Early Girl Eatery

$ | Downtown

Named after an early-maturing tomato variety, Early Girl Eatery is casually Southern, with a natural twist, as it partners with about two dozen local farms for its farm-to-table cuisine. Breakfast is served all day and includes stacks of multigrain pancakes with organic maple syrup, shrimp and grits, and sausage-and--sweet potato scramble. In 2018, the owners opened a second location at 444 Haywood Road in West Asheville.

Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack

$ | West Asheville
Serving Nashville-style fried chicken (at different levels of spiciness), this casual restaurant is a little ways from downtown, but a local's favorite and one of the best places for a cheap meal or takeout picnic. Large chicken platters, sandwiches, sides, and your pick of sauces are all loaded with flavor; order the fried pickles with zippy ranch as a snack. Family platters feed 8--15.

Sunny Point Café

$$

Sunny Point serves food that's simple, well prepared, and not too expensive. Herbs and some veggies come from the restaurant's organic garden next door. Don't pass up the shrimp and grits or meat loaf (regular or vegetarian) with buttermilk mashed potatoes and sautéed greens.

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